Leaving it to 'The One'

My verb conjugation in French is really crappy.  So I have been trying really hard to make an effort.  Sometimes I ask S and A about it.  This leads me to wonder if they are really French at all when they have no idea.  Do you think that I could find a certified French teacher for my next au pair;) So I listen.  A and S are constantly speaking French to the kids.  The funny thing I noticed is that "The One" is all powerful.  One goes to the store.  Did the one tell you not to hit your brother? One went to the zoo.  No wonder I can think of how to conjugate verbs for 'we'.  We never does anything, its always 'The One'.  When visiting my MIL in August, I noticed that she does that too and I was very confused. 
Her:One can go to the store. 
Me:  Who?
Her:One
Me: I got to the store or you go to the store.
Her:  My BF and I go to the store.....

Perhaps all of this 'one' business will be good for my Jedi training.  Until then, maybe I need to take a French grammar class....

On the road -- Step 1 Fingerprints

I am applying for the 2nd time for French citizenship.  This is sort of crazy, I don't even have to be living in France, I just have to be married to a French citizen for 4 years.  Well I have put in over 10 years of duty, so I thought it was time to try again.  I have been flirting with the idea of moving back to Europe and having French citizenship means that we don't necessarily have to live in France but we could live any EU country and work.  I actually recently got a job offer in Paris, but A didn't want to move to rainly Paris.  So I have my eyes open to southern-French opportunities, but maybe just being less than and 8 hour plane ride away from "les grandparents" would be good, considering the complete and total fall out with my parents.

So for my French citizenship the first thing that I have to do is get an FBI criminal report, which can take 2 months, and to do that I had to get fingerprinted.  I have already been fingerprinted before (for my last attempt and for a job), so I thought I knew the drill.  I just had to find a police station that does it and then go at their weird times (11-1), but not during lunch;)  So my work has it's own police force and lucky me, it only costs me $20.  Fingerprinting in the US, has become very modern, or at least where I went.  No more are you using ink, but instead there is a computer program to take your prints and "mimnic" a ink image and you just print out the fingerprints.  I was pretty good. 

So step 1, wait 2 months for the FBI to send me a letter saying that I have no criminal record....

A perfect day in Aix-en-Provence -- 3 Years Passed

My little L was born three years ago today.  Before he was born though, I had a last perfect day of my pre-kid life.  After a summer of being bare-foot and pregnant without a way of leaving my quaint little Provencal village, we finally got a car, which was my blue Skoda Roomster.  So I was finally free to escape the house, the village and get out into the world on my own.  At the risk of having a baby on the streets of Aix-en-Provence, where I knew no one and had no way of communicating, I headed to Aix anyway.  I wanted to eat non-Provencal food, see an American movie and go to an English book store.  So I went to Aix, on a beautiful September day and walked around the downtown, ate sushi, went to see "The Waitress" and browsed the 'Book in Bar', book store.  The simple things life are the best.

Three years and two kids later my life is very different...

Rentree Reflections

I am really sad to be back in the office after 5 weeks away (4 week of being in France and 1 week on travel for work).  I think the time for vacation was the best.  Being outside all the time, that's the greatest.  On the east coast of the US, there are too many mosquitoes to go outside and they don't die until the weather is too cold to enjoy the outside.  So my fresh air and natural light fix are not satisfied as they were in the west coast of France.  I think that the French have the right idea about Rentree, not it's not to go on strike, but it is to always be planning for the next vacation.  That's what I am doing.  Only 77 days until Niagara Falls!

Rentrée

When in France, September is the month were people comes back from their vacations and the beginning of September is spent kissing everyone hello and asking them about what they did.  It is like in school where the first week is spent writing essays about 'What I Did on my Summer Vacation'.  The French call it 'Rentrée'  -- Return.  Today what my Rentrée.  I had left for France on Aug 1st.  Even though I worked remotely for 2 weeks, besides a few emails to my co-workers, we really didn't communicate much.  Then the beginning of this week I was at a conference, so today was my first day back at work.  Turns out my tan has faded a bit, not so impressive;(  Sadly almost no one else went away, so asking them about their vacations was meant with grime looks.
Before I left, I had to move all of the stuff out of my office so they could do some furniture rearragement.  So besides catching up on email and seeing people, I spent some time reorganizing stuff.
I still have lots of candy to give out and plenty of projects to catch-up on...

I have to say, that it is kind of nice being away, but it is good to finally be back home to my pillow and my own bed;)